Prudent Prepping: the Becker BK-2

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping.  

Garry Hamilton, a member of the Blue Collar Prepping Facebook Group, is a fan of knives and recently offered to share a knife with several of us! The knife, a Becker BK-2, is to be used in as normal fashion as possible and then reviewed here.

Here is a short video talking about the history of the Becker Knife/Ka-Bar Company.




And this is the Becker BK-2 I have been loaned for review.

 BK-2 (bottom) with Kershaw Leek (top) for scale

First Impressions
This knife is BEEFY! The handle is sized right for me: not too big around to hold easily and long enough to fit well in my hand.

From the BK-2 website:

• Weight, 1.0 lb
•  Measurements- Blade length 5.25"; Overall length 10.5"
•  Blade Thickness 0.250*
•  Blade Width 1.625
•  Edge Angles 20 Degrees**
•  Grind, Flat
•  Steel, 1095 Cro-Van

There is more info on the page listed above.

 (Left) BK-5 (Right) BK-2

* Yes, you read that correctly, the blade of this knife is 1/4" thick! That's why a knife 10" long weighs a pound. In comparison, here is a picture of the (now discontinued) BK-5 to show how stout the BK-2 really is.

The BK-5 is:

• Overall Length: 13-1/2"
•  Blade Length: 8"
•  Thickness: 0.188"
•  Weight: 11.9 oz

So you have two knives, one 40% longer and 3/4 the weight of the other, but the BK-2 feels much, much heavier, due to the weight not being spread out.

The BK-2 can obviously be used to baton wood, while the BK-5 is, for all intents and purposes, an all-black version of the WW2 Marine fighting knife.

** From discussions in BCP and elsewhere, grind angles have been mentioned several different times and how handy it would be to have them listed in sales literature or Owners Manuals. Ka-Bar shows angles on their Specification pages!

I plan on using this and reporting back very soon!


The Recap

• One Ka-Bar BK-2 knife:  $72.80 from Amazon with Prime.

Just a reminder: if you plan on buying anything through Amazon, please consider using our referral link. When you do, a portion of the sale comes back here to help keep this site running!

If you have comments, suggestions or corrections, please post them so we all can learn. And remember, Some Is Always Better Than None!

NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.